Belfort 8° Blond

Sampled from 0.75 l bottle at RBBSG 2016 in Evergem. Slightly hazy, orangeish yellow with a fluffy white head. Sweetish, yeasty-spicy aroma of caramel, banana, cloves and vanilla. Sweetish-malty, yeasty-spicy taste of banana, cloves, vanilla and caramel, followed by a medium long, moderately bitter, yeasty-spicy finish. Medium body, quite effervescent mouthfeel, average carbonation. Okay!

75cl bottle @RBBSG2016. Fast klare dunkel goldene Farbe, mittelgroße weiße schaumkrone. Geruch getreidig hell malzig, leicht hefig. Geschmack nach hellen Früchten, getreidig süß malzig, uninteressant.

Pours fuzzy blonde small to no head. Smell is plastic yeasty. Taste is Sharp, bit bitter, yeast explosion, bit sweet. Meh

Original rating: 27 August 2016. At Gents Bierfestival 2016. 6/3/7/3/13=3.2.
Rerate based on a bottle from a Carrefour in Ninove. Best before: 11/8/17 (effectively expired for one year). Pours hazy dark golden/orange with a thin, frothy, off-white head. Aroma of peach, orange peel, yellow apple, grass, breadcrust, spices, honey, faint solvent or soap. It tastes medium fruity sweet, balancing apple & peach, and light to medium spicy bitter, quite yeasty & bready. Dryish, spicy & peppery hoppy finish, lingering yeast with a not so subtle dash of warming jenever alcohol. Medium body, oily/fatty texture, fizzy carbonation. Unrefined Tripel; I would recommend the Bruin version.

Commissioned strong Belgian blonde, bottle of 75 cl from Fontana in Sint-Niklaas; apparently originally a De Triest beer but now at the Proef. Very creamy and dense, frothy, thick, snow white, very stable head over a deep orange blonde beer, lightly hazy and fizzy. Aroma of banana, orange, bitter honey, peach, pineapple, white pepper, sweet grapes, baker’s yeast, caramel, lightly toasted white bread, strawberry, grass but also something vaguely plastic-like. Sweetish onset with well-balanced fruity esters, banana, peach and orange impressions in a medium carbonated environment, some white candi sugar sweetness somewhere, supple malt body, honeyish and caramelly sweet, very smooth and rounded. Becomes more and more yeasty towards the finish, with a certain ’doughy’ effect, soft herbal hop bitterness and warming, gin-like alcohol. Very correct in every sense and technically completely flawless; style-wise seemingly intended as a typical ’edelbier’ (the Duvel style, let’s say) but at the same time very tripel-like as well - and in that sense, well, redundant, adding absolutely nothing to the already heavily overcrowded tripel population in this country. Ratebeer should include points for originality too.

Bottle at THT. Two words: Alcoholic Blonde. Boo Yaahhhh!!! Backlog from 2015/11/27. --- Beer merged from original tick of Belfort 8° on 27 Nov 2015 at 22:25 - Score: 6. Original review text: Alcoholic blondy

Bottle at THT. Alcoholic blondy.

Bottle @ THT. Hazy yellow color, average sized white head. Smell and taste malts, a touch of yeast, sweetish, some kind of fruityness with a touch of alcohol. A bit weird, don’t like it but it’s drinkable. Average body, fizzy carbonation.

Bottle at THT thanks to benzai. Hazy golden with white head. Sweet malts, honey, quite flowery, peach, light herbs. Quite sweet with light testy bitterness. Medium bodied with fizzy carbonation.

75cl bottle shared at November THT. Thin white head. Hazy blond pour. Average.